Reviews

there's just a lot.

I thought the plot was okay, but that's mostly on me bc I'm not generally interested in comtemporary romance. That said, I did enjoy the overall story arc, if it was a little.... bleh at times? But again, I'm usually not super into contemporary romance.

Where this book I think shines is the characters and especially their growth. The characters were well fleshed out and developed and felt very real, even the side characters.

An example of this is when Logan is SA'd and even when he comes out and explains what happened, several of his costars, including Julie who is certainly portrayed as a kindly, good hearted person, refused to make any type of apology for immediately siding with his attacker. While that was painful to read about, I did find it very real,

And speaking of Logan, I loved how his character arc played out, allowing him the space to like really heal, not just go with the "love conquers all trope." This also emphasized how as much as they loved each other, sometimes it's not healthy for either party at that particular moment in time

and they need to take a break to work on themselves in order to come back together at a later date and try again.

I also loved Mattie's arc and how the narrative didn't shy away from acknowledging that he ALSO fucked up and needed to work on himself in order to be in a healthy relationship.

His saviourism was REAL I'm so glad it was called out.

Really this is just a refreshing and realistic take on a romance.

readingredhead's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

akacya's review against another edition

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5.0

2024 reads: 147/250

content warnings: sexual assault (childhood & adult), biphobia, homophobia (including from a parent), suicidal thoughts, mentions of drug use and drinking

when hollywood’s bad boy logan gray and golden boy mattie cole are cast as leads in a new romance movie, they quickly have to devise a publicity plan after logan calls mattie talentless. they’re thrust into a fake dating scheme, which quickly brings about real romantic feelings for one another.

since i’ve read and enjoyed a couple other books by kacen callender, and was interested in this premise, i was expecting to like this book, but didn’t know i’d love it so much. i will say that i’d consider this more of a contemporary novel than a romance, as it focused more on the individual characters’ growth throughout the book. this was dual pov, which i really appreciated since it meant we got to see into both logan and mattie’s minds instead of relying on one narrative.

i’d recommend this to readers of adult contemporary novels, as long as you’re okay with the content warnings.